Are you happy: Lucy Parfitt, beauty therapist?

Electrolysis is a part of what I do. With women there are places where it's just not acceptable to have hair. It's embarrassing even to consider. People can be quite cruel.

Sometimes a woman will visit a beauty therapist and be confronted with some 18-year-old vision of perfection. It's daunting. I think I'm different. I know what it feels like to have bad skin, to have hair where it shouldn't be. Sometimes women apologise when they come in. They're putting themselves in a vulnerable position. The whole point of what I do is to put right the things that can affect their happiness.

It's strange being intimate with people before knowing them. It can feel like a counselling session. I'm very open - possibly too open - but I don't mind the talking.

I'm a bit of a polar person; I can be ecstatic but also flat. I make myself happy by getting exercise and being with my family, but that's taken a long time. In my early 20s I struggled with being an adult. I was terrified of wasting life, of doing the wrong thing, and equally terrified of office jobs where I would spend my life moaning about work. I had a sheltered, idyllic childhood and the wider world was a scary place.

I've found something now. Sometimes I'll connect with one of the women. That's happiness. Even if it's just a snippet of time. At the end, I often get a tight handshake, a big smile, a firm thank you.